Review: Zoombies

Fans of cheaply made sci-fi and monster movies have no doubt heard of The Asylum, an independent American film production company which has made a name for itself by producing low budget takes on blockbuster movies known as ‘mockbusters’. Their filmography includes titles such as Transmorphers and Atlantic Rim (why yes, I do like robots). One of The Asylum’s more recent efforts is Zoombies which is perhaps loosely inspired by Zombeavers, except here instead of one type of zombified animal, we have a whole zoo of them!

The plot behind Zoombies is a simple enough one; an experiment gone wrong results in various zoo animals being infected with a zombie-esque virus which causes them to hunger for human flesh and go on a rampage. As chaos spreads, the zoo’s staff and assorted interns must band together to try and escape from a Jurassic Word style facility while preventing the infected animals from escaping and allowing the virus to go global.

While the plot for Zoombies isn’t exactly groundbreaking stuff, it is certainly a recipe for absolute mayhem. There’s plenty of animal-based carnage to go around, from a killer koala to man-eating giraffes plucking hapless victims from trees. The latter appears to be a homage to the original King Kong film, where a long-necked sauropod dinosaur decided to snack on an unlucky sailor for some reason. There is even a fairly tense sequence where some of the cast are stalked by an infected gorilla. Despite the fact that the gorilla is a combination of cheap CGI and a bad monkey suit, the scene actually manages to work.

While you can’t fault it for ambition, it must be admitted that Zoombies is let down by its budget, or lack thereof. A lot of the special effects are very sub-par and it is quite distracting. The elephants in particular look awful and there is one stand out moment where some poor unfortunate soul gets trampled on by one which looks terrible due to a combination of bad editing and ropey effects.

Overall, the acting in Zoombies isn’t too bad for a film of this type. While none of the cast are likely to be winning a best actor Oscar any time soon, they do a decent job with what they have to work with. Kim Nielsen’s lead performance is noteworthy as, while she struggles a bit in some of the more serious moments, the scenes where she is on screen with her daughter seem very realistic to the point where one might wonder if they were in fact related in real life.

If you can excuse the less than stellar production values, Zoombies is an enjoyable romp which blends action, horror and comedy. A film like this is best enjoyed along with a side order of beer and pizza. There are certainly worse ways to spend 90 minutes.

Sean is Geek Ireland's resident dinosaur enthusiast, having been fascinated by prehistory since a time before he could read, speak or stand in an upright position (he still struggles to do at least one of these things on a daily basis).
Known as one of the biggest dinosaur fans Ireland has ever produced, Sean has delivered talks on his favourite subject at many venues and events including the Irish Film Institute, the UCD Science Expression Festival, Tayto Park, Dublin Comic Con and even London's Comedy Store.